1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for a recyclable plastic enclosure for use in an office machine, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for a recyclable plastic enclosure which includes an information material holder, for use in an office machine.
2. Discussion of the Background
Designing reusable components for office machines, including image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, facsimile machines, and so forth, has been on its way to becoming popular in response to a recent rising tide of a recycling movement. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 08-340182 (1996) describes a recyclable enclosure, having a sheet decal, for office machines. This recyclable enclosure can be recycled without removing the sheet decal.
Many office machines are equipped with a transparency case, usually bonded on a surface of a recyclable exterior cover of the office machine, for holding information material such as a business card that indicates various kinds of information including contacts for supplies, repairs, and so forth. Such a case is generally made of PP (polypropylene) resins while the recyclable exterior cover is made of ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) resins. Since the PP resins have no compatibility with the ABS resins, recycling of the ABS exterior cover together with the PP case produces a resin having an inferior characteristic. Therefore, the ABS exterior cover needs to undergo a recycling process after the PP case is removed therefrom.
To solve this problem, a transparency case made of PS (polystyrene) resins which has a compatibility with ABS resins has been recently studied, to be bonded on a surface of a recyclable cover of an office machine. In this case, however, a bonding material may become a foreign substance for the ABS resin recycling operation even though the transparency case is no longer a foreign substance.
Therefore, it is believed that there is no office apparatus which includes a recyclable plastic enclosure which includes an information material holder and which can be recycled together with the information material.